Mike Rogers opens 4th Mike’s Country Store, meat processing plant

LEESBURG — Mike Rogers proudly describes his business style as “old-school.”

How old-school is Rogers?

“I tell you what, if a customer comes in here and wants one gizzard or one chicken breast and doesn’t walk out with it, I want to know about it,” Rogers says. “I don’t want them to call the store and complain, I want them to call me, personally. Tell them to call my cellphone — (229) 869-7611 — because I’m always available.”

Is that old-school enough for you?

Rogers, the son of grocers who’s run his own version for the past 24 years, has turned his concept of customer-first, good old-fashioned service into one of the hottest franchises in the region. He held a ribbon-cutting/grand opening for his fourth Mike’s Country Store at 3203 Gillionville Road on Friday, and he recently opened the Southern Meat Processing plant across Philema Road from his first Mike’s in Lee County.

At a time when small businesses are still trying to climb their way back from the financial doldrums brought on by the Recession of 2008, Rogers has increased his staff to 131 employees. And he’s thinking of adding more … lots more.

“Yeah, it took me 18 years to start getting crazy (by expanding his business), but if I could take it all back, I’d have started about 10 years sooner,” Rogers said. “You see, I know what I can do. I don’t have the bank account to take on these national food chains, but I have sense enough to know it’s customers and employees that make small businesses successful.

“I’m only one person, and I can only be in one place at a time. I’ve got to hire people who understand what I expect and then let them do their jobs. But more important even than the employees are the customers. They’re the ones who allow me to pay my bills. If it weren’t for my customers, I wouldn’t be talking to you and you wouldn’t be writing a story.”

In addition to “soft-opening” his fourth Mike’s a couple of weeks back, Rogers also hired three new employees to work in his Southern Meat Processing plant. There, staff prepare fresh patty and link sausages, ground Boston butts for specialty hot dogs and bologna, season and process 800 pounds of jerky at a time, slice bacon and prepare tons of meats for packaging and distribution at Mike’s locations in Leesburg, Albany, Putney and Moultrie.

“The volume of meat we sold increased to the point that we had to expand our processing capability,” Rogers said. “We were doing everything in a little 10-by-10 room with antiquated equipment. The new processing plant allows us to increase volume and to control the quality. We have more efficient equipment that allows us to create more volume and more diversity in our products.”

Rogers hints that even that expansion may not be enough.

“I really want to talk with officials in Albany about their job-creation grants,” he said. “I can see opening a regional meat distribution plant that would allow us to process volume enough to ship anywhere in the country. If we did that, we’d be looking at creating anywhere from 50 to 60 new jobs immediately.

“With the kind of buying power that would give us, we could order entire tractor-trailer loads of ribeyes or hamburger meat, and that could potentially open a lot of doors for our area. The quality is there already, what could we do operating at such large volume?”

Despite what appears to be overwhelming success at Mike’s, Rogers admits that his plans are nowhere near completion.

“Once we get (the processing plant) set up to federal standards, we’ll start packaging and processing products that we’ll sell all over,” he said. “I think that’s what I like most about this business, the challenge. That and the customers. It’s like I tell my employees: Whether someone comes in to buy a piece of bubblegum or a cart full of groceries, make them feel welcome.

“This business is not about money for me. I had an employee at my Moultrie store tell me, ‘Mr. Mike, thank you for this job. Because of you, I’ve been able to buy my first car.’ That’s pretty cool, and that’s why I do this. If I was worth $50 billion, I’d be talking the same way to you I am right now. This business — and any small business — is all about people.”